


Requiem for the Lost

by kingkatlicks



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Critique of Alternian Culture, Gen, Implied Execution, Lots of thinking and crying, Past Character Death, Somewhat original work?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 19:29:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15564834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingkatlicks/pseuds/kingkatlicks
Summary: A captive troll thinks back on her past, and on the future.





	Requiem for the Lost

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on an old fansession I made once, I hope you like it!

Vitrim knew she was going to die. She had known for a long time now. She wasn't sure if it was because of the fact that she had been told her execution day, or a feeling deep in her bones, or a combination of the two. The shackles on her arms chafed and forced her arms down if she didn't lift them, though the feeling of being physically anchored was a relief.

She had spent much of the past few sweeps wandering the desert, feeling empty of anything but grief of what had become of her companions, and anger at the injustice in the system that drove them to fight it. She sighed and leaned her head back against the hard stone, closing her eyes as she did so. Would it really be so bad to die? To leave this wretched plane of existence for unknown terrain, where she might find her matesprite waiting patiently for her. Or find nothing at all?

She had all but accepted her death so far, caught up in a torrent of grief and anguish. Wandering, wandering, always wandering. She felt some comfort in the fact that though she had been caught, her matesprite had escaped this life without seeing what had become of her, though she knew it was selfish.

When she had first woken up here, she was almost surprised to find she had been spared from the usual vigorous torture, until she laid eyes on her legislator. He had came in to bring her food and water, and she could have cried at how poetic it was that her old moirail would be the one to sentence her to the death he escaped.

He had grown even stronger than he was in their youth, all lean muscle and hard angles, and she silently wondered where the new scars across his face had come from. When he had first laid eyes on her, she saw the flicker of emotion, raw and painful, flicker across his face, before he quickly recovered his composure, and nodded his head to the lone guard as a sign of dismissal.

" Vitram." " Levith." His face twitched once more, before settling into a more neutral expression. " I would have thought that you would have made yourself scarce after what happened," he said, his voice still holding traces of the boy she had spent many a night with, consoling each other over their respective traumas, whispering about whom they thought were attractive enough to quadrant, grinning over inside jokes. She smiled a weak smile and replied, " We tried, but I suppose it's fitting I've managed to wind up back where it all started.".

He startled almost imperceptibly when she mentioned "we", the implication of a group once together, now scattered. He sighed, and ran his hand through his hair before removing his glasses and sitting in front of her cell, looking at her face to face for the first time in sweeps. "What happened 'Tram?". If not for the fact she knew him well, she would have missed the way his eyes sadly regarded the shell of her former self.

She could imagine what she must look like after sweeps of running from the empire, and the near sweep she had spent running from her thoughts. Scars littered her body, and her once unusually light hair had darkened with sweat and grime. Her eyes were almost hollow, emptied by the things she'd witnessed, the people she'd lost. She met his eyes, and for a moment she could see how his face reflected her own, and what their lives might have been like if she had ran with him, the drones at the door.

They'd have been hunted by all of the people they used to call allies, friends. She silently closed her eyes and shook her head. No, she wouldn't have been able to do it, even with her moirail by her side, she couldn't stand the thought of Nessoi silently condemning her, her eyes closing over as she told her to leave and never return. Vitram lifted her head and looked Levith in the eye, feeling for all the world like she'd been dragging the ghosts of their friends behind her as she had ran, a coward among champions.

At her sad smile, his eyes silently filled with sorrow, and his hand covered his mouth. "How?" They had always known that their revolution would fail, but it felt much more real to known that their friends were gone, and would not return. "Drone raid." She said, shrugging slightly, no longer having to struggle to keep her voice level, but hurting all the same. He closed his eyes, and she watched him grieve in his own way, body twitching slightly from the effort of keeping it in. " I, I don't deserve to, to, to be able grieve them, it was me who-" he stuttered, biting his thumb to try and contain his tears. "It wasn't your fault Lev, it wasn't either of our faults," The tears did come now to both of them, and he collapsed onto the bars separating them, sobbing quietly.

After a while, they both calmed down enough to talk. "How are my odds looking legislator?" She said with a wry smile, trying to keep her tone light as though she were not discussing her own death. He frowned slightly, responding after a moment, " There are a lot of people who want you to suffer, they hate you for killing their child heiress." Vitram smiled ruefully, shaking her head slightly, " I suppose it's best they decide to take their aggression out on me, rather than anyone currently trying to fix this mess."

She looked up at him, still smiling, only to find him staring at her face, a silent battle warring on his face, before he finally said, " You know, her hatchling is among them," Her smile slipped, understanding he meant a different she than the deceased heiress. Vitram swallowed, then managed to speak again, " Will I be able to see them?" He quietly assessed her, before averting his eyes and saying, ". She has personally requested to see you."

Vitram suddenly felt the breath being knocked from her lungs, thoughts of a violet blood with dark eyes and a sharp grin filled her head. Would she look much like Nessoi? Would she look anything like Vitram? " Did her lusus-?" "Yes." "What's her name?" He responded, carefully choosing his next words, " Her name is Aphros, but she may not be what you think she is,". Vitram's eyes were already misting over again, " Aphros, Aphros, I- I know that she won't be Nessoi, but I feel it will be like seeing her, one last time before the end,"

Tears silently began running down her cheeks again, as she remembered the last moments she saw her matesprite, bleeding and dying but so, so, angry. Violet eyes rimmed with red-orange, turning towards her, a mouth she could map out in her sleep, shouting, telling Vitram to run, to save herself, even though Nessoi herself was already half dead on her feet. She saw her friends all desperately fighting for their lives. She fled, glancing back only to see her using her signature double blade to cut a support pillar holding up the ceiling.

Levith looked at her sadly, " I'm not going to stop you, but please," with this he gently squeezed her held hands, " Be careful not to say or do anything that will get you tortured." With this he gently kissed her hands, and after fixing his glasses back into place, began to walk to the door. " Levith?" She said, stopping him for a moment. "Yes Vitram?" He answered, turning his head slightly towards her. "I'm proud of you." She said, sending him a smile he could barely see. She heard his breath hitch slightly, before he gave a quick nod and walked out.

It had felt like a couple of hours since Levith had come by, maybe a night or so. Vitram had slipped in and out of restless sleep, wondering if Levith lied to make her feel better. It certainly didn't help that the only people she saw were the ever-changing guard, and they certainly didn't seem prone to conversation. She mostly wondered about Nessoi's descendant. She knew she had kept a record of sorts, before their rag-tag group left to make history, but she had no idea if the girl would have even read it, or if she just destroyed it. From what little she knew of her, she was a reverent follower of the empire, which seemed extremely ironic seeing as her ancestor, quite literally, killed its immediate future.

She was in the middle of one such trail of thought, when she heard the door open. As she looked up, the light from the door blinded her, forcing her to squint. "Dismissed," she heard a young voice say, and they guard shuffled out, the door closing behind them. Before she could readjust to the darkness, a match lit a sconce nearby, making Vitram's stomach drop. In the firelight she saw a person who was Nessoi, but not quite Nessoi. Her skin tone was the same, though she didn't seem to have any scars on her like Nessoi did. Her hair was short, and Vitram recognized it as similar to the hair cut that one of her friends had as a young adolescent, and red eyes and a shy grin and a mouth open in a silent scream appeared in her mind. Her ear fins, while just as beautiful as Nessoi's, had several piercings, which made her think of fangs and green eyes and a fierce battle cry as a loved one was ripped away. She was wearing lipstick, and had a lip piercing which made Vitram think of two sets of blue eyes and an arena and a bike and the way a drone's arm managed to make a hole the same size the same place two times. She's wearing a mixture of different clothing items, none matching, which reminds her of Nessoi and stark yellow eyes at the same time, and she realizes that this girl is so much of Nessoi, so much of all of them really, that it hurts.

Aphros stares her down for a moment, her eyes unblinking and intense, face unreadable, until finally she says, with nothing in her voice, nothing to betray her emotions but her eyes, "Pathetic..." Her violet lips turn into a snarl and she slams her hand into the bars, eyes filling with incomprehensible rage as she does it again almost yelling now, " Pathetic!" She paces around the room and snarls like she's the one in the cage, marked for death, and Vitram can only feel sorry for her. She waits for the girl to decide if she wants to say anything, silently staring at her.

" All my life, ALL MY FUCKING LIFE, have I been looked down upon because of my stupid ancestor! Because she decided to kill the heiress! For what? Fame? Glory? Equality?" She's riling herself up, trying to wash out all of her emotions with anger. Vitram has seen another violet blood do the same thing, try to scare her into leaving her, chase her away. She always came back. Vitram suddenly wonders what she's expected to do when there's no one left to go back to.

"BASTARDS! The whole lot of us! And yet, just because my sire decided to do something horrible, something that eventually caught up to her, and KILLED HER, I'm supposed to take the blame for he actions? NO! I refuse to!" She whirls on Vitram, getting angrier by the second, her eyes showing it all, and practically collapses. " I didn't ask to be born to a murderer," She's not sure she feels alright enough to talk yet, but watching this miniature Nessoi, burn so brightly, and then burn out so quickly, is almost too much for Vitram. 'You look so much like her,', Vitram wants to say. Instead she says, " I wish you didn't have to go through that. I know Nessoi would too." Aphros' head shoots up from where she was studying the floor, and she starts crying. Vitram's bloodpusher immediately goes out to the girl. She wishes she weren't here to die, that Nessoi was here, that they all were here, so that they could teach this little troll just how loved she is, how much Vitram loves her and how much Nessoi would love her, how much they all love her.

After Aphros leaves, Levith comes back. He doesn't say anything at first, just sits on a bench in front of her cell and shoos the guard away. After a moment he says, "It's tomorrow,". Vitram blinks at him, then quietly asks, " What punishment?". He looks like the legislator he is, not allowing any emotion to reign on his face. " Public Burning.". Vitram freezes, remembering the face of Aphros, so angry at the world for chaining her, of Nessoi, so angry at the world for chaining others, remembers her friends, all at their best and their worst.

She's holding back tears when Livith suddenly says, facing away from her, " It wasn't your fault Tram, it wasn't either of our faults,". Hearing the words she had used to comfort him only nights ago was all she needing to break into a torrent of sobbing over the loss and hurt everyone she knew had suffered, and over the new generation who would rise to replace them. Levith sat patiently by her throughout the day, allowing her the time she needed before the next night.


End file.
